MO Republican praises DC takeover as model for KC. What do local leaders say?
As President Donald Trump threatens sending troops to U.S. cities to crack down on crime, a top Missouri Republican took direct aim at Kansas City this week.
U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, during a hearing on Tuesday, praised the Trump administration’s recent federal takeover of Washington, D.C. He asked the chair of the D.C. Police Union whether similar efforts would help Kansas City.
“What lessons can be learned, sort of at scale in D.C., in places like Kansas City, for example, that has a high crime rate and an apologist mayor and a prosecutor that doesn’t want to prosecute violent criminals?” Schmitt asked Detective Gregg Pemberton, who chairs the union.
Pemberton responded that a “proper number of police officers” and a prosecutor that “backs those officers” can reduce crime in seven days.
“We saw federal agents surge in, we saw the National Guard taking post in these neighborhoods, and we saw a prosecutor who took all of our arrests seriously,” Pemberton said. “Within the first week there was a remarkable night and day difference.”
Crime in Kansas City
Schmitt’s comments at the Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing have intensified concerns that Kansas City could be swept up in the Trump administration’s sweeping anti-crime crackdown.
Crime in Kansas City, which is more diverse and politically progressive than the rest of the state, has long been a key talking point for Missouri Republicans. Schmitt’s question also echoed a long history of push-and-pull between GOP officials and the largely Democratic city.
Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson immediately rejected both Schmitt’s characterization of crime trends in D.C. as well as the way her office handles public safety.
Johnson’s spokesperson, in a statement to The Star, said the crime reductions in D.C. that Schmitt referenced were already underway well before the August federal takeover, citing federal data from 2024 and 2025.
Spokesperson Jazzlyn Johnson also pushed back on Schmitt’s claim that her office doesn’t want to prosecute violent criminals. Johnson said the office has embedded prosecutors in all police patrol divisions and violent crime units and has a positive relationship with law enforcement.
Johnson welcomed a meeting with Schmitt to discuss the office’s strategy, the spokesperson said.
“If federal partners want to help, we welcome targeted resources that actually improve public safety here, for example, additional data analysts to support our crime labs; not a militarized presence that creates the wrong optics and operational concerns,” Johnson said.
State control of KCPD
Local leaders have often chafed at the state and federal officials’ willingness to impose themselves on the city, whether on police control, guns and housing rules.
Kansas City is also one of the few cities in the nation with a police department under state control, a highly unusual arrangement with roots in Civil War-era racism and fueled by the tough-on-crime rhetoric of the Republican-controlled Missouri General Assembly.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas nodded at this arrangement in a statement to The Star that emphasized the major role statewide Republican officials play in overseeing the city’s police.
“I respect our junior Republican senator even if he doesn’t respect me,” Lucas said.
“I will always welcome the opportunity,” Lucas said, “to discuss with Missouri Republican leadership how we can work with the Republican-appointed Kansas City and St. Louis police boards, which manage policing in our largest cities, to take Republican-led Missouri off the list of America’s most dangerous states.”
Homicide rate in Kansas City
Schmitt’s exchange this week is certain to bolster fears that the sprawling Kansas City region could soon be a target for the Trump administration.
Homicide numbers in Kansas City have been high over the past nine years though there were dips in 2018, 2021 and 2024, according to annual reports for the Kansas City Police Department and numbers The Star tracks.
The same day as the federal hearing, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe authorized the state’s National Guard to help U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, plunging Missouri into national mass deportation efforts led by Trump.
When asked on Tuesday about the possibility of National Guard troops coming to Kansas City, Kehoe’s office told The Star there were no current plans.
But, his office added that he would keep his options open.
